dialed on the dispenser--the cocktail for her, a scotch and soda for
himself.

"You're new here," she said. "Have you just been hired or are you a
visitor?" Again the smile. "My name's Glenna."

"Call me Joe," said Dalgetty. His first name was actually Simon. "No,
I'll only be here a short while."

"Where you from?" she asked. "I'm clear from New Jersey myself."

"Proving that nobody is ever born in California." He grinned. The
control was asserting itself, his racing emotions were checked and he
could think clearly again. "I'm--uh--just a floater. Don't have any
real address right now."

The dispenser ejected the drinks on a tray and flashed the
charge--$20. Not bad, considering everything. He gave the machine a
fifty and it made change, a five-buck coin and a bill.

"Well," said Glenna, "here's to you."

"And you." He touched glasses, wondering how to say what he had to
say. Damn it, he couldn't sit here just talking or necking, he'd come
to listen but.... A sardonic montage of all the detective shows he had
ever seen winked through his mind. The amateur who rushes in and
solves the case, _heigh-ho_. He had never appreciated all the detail
involved till now.

* * * * *

There was hesitation in him. He decided that a straightforward
approach was his best bet. Deliberately then he created a cool
confidence. Subconsciously he feared this girl, alien as she was to
his class. All right, force the reaction to the surface, recognize it,
suppress it. Under the table his hands moved in the intricate symbolic
pattern which aided such emotion-harnessing.

"Glenna," he said, "I'm afraid I'll be rather dull company. The fact
is I'm doing some research in psychology, learning how to concentrate
under different conditions. I wanted to try it in a place like this,
you understand." He slipped out a 2-C bill and laid it before her. "If
you'd just sit here quietly it won't be for more than an hour I
guess."

"Huh?" Her brows lifted. Then, with a shrug and a wry smile, "Okay,
you're paying for it." She took a cigarette from the flat case at her
sash, lit it and relaxed. Dalgetty leaned against the wall and closed
his eyes again.

The girl watched him curiously. He was of medium height, stockily
built, inconspicuously dressed in a blue short-sleeved tunic, gray
slacks and sandals. His square snub-nosed face was lightly freckled,
with hazel eyes and a rather pleasant shy smile. The rusty hair